I'm hoping the stubborn and fighting nature of hockey players holds out and gets them through the year to the point where the owners are looking at a second year out. That's when I think the stuffing will come out of the turkey. Surely only a fool is gonna believe that the league is going to survive an apocalypse.

LOL the way you carry on about this is comical. Most of us just want to watch hockey again while you have polarized yourself to the point where half the board probably has you on ignore. Why is it that you want to lick the salt off the players ballsacks ?

If the league is shut down for one year , let alone two, 25- 50 % of these NHLPA members you idolize will never play in the league again. Is that what you want ? It's one thing to pick sides but your insatiable lust for everything NHLPA is nauseating. I don't get it. Are you a former player ???

Right or wrong there aren't a lot of people out there with 18,000 seat arenas that are fully staffed waiting to pay hockey players an AVERAGE of 2.5 million dollars a season. You do realize that NHL is a niche sport in North America don't you ? The revenue stream is a drop of piss in the bucket compared to MLB, NFL, NBA, Golf, Tennis etc. It's somewhere between tether ball and lawn bowling for the average American.

The apocolypse you rant about will affect the players far more than the owners. Be careful what you wish for. Your hero could be playing for an average of 200 K if they shitcan another season or two. But then they will have won the war right ?????

Canuck-One wrote:I wonder if Chris Chelios is off somewhere wondering how come the deal brokered by Trevor Linden looks so good right now. Linden was correct when he said that the deal would be better for the players in the long run.

I am finding it amusing but also annoying how so many people view these negotiations as being that the owners have given up so much and that the players don't add anything. First off the players are the show. No one pays to watch an owner sit at his seat. Secondly this current CBA was viewed by many as a total capitulation by the players and Bettman was thumping it's merits as saving the league with cost certainty. Don't forget they forced the players to accept a 24% rollback on their wages. Now the little dictator wants them to roll back again and people are accussing the players of not giving anything in the negotiations? Sit out the year boys, keep together and tell the owners that you have lost all faith in Bettman's credibility and want to deal with someone else.

I haven't watched a full CFL game in years but the Lions are looking pretty good this year and my son tells me his favourite team (the Vikings) are doing fantastic at the start of the season. I think I'll start to watch and see if I can rekindle the love I used to have for football.

If nothing else there are two big elections coming up and the supposed removal of the PST should be interesting to watch. I read both papers cover to cover each day (the actual paper editions not the computerized crap) and watch the evening and afternoon news reports. So there is a lot to be interested in other than hockey, even though it is my first love.

First off, the teams are the show. The players, individually, can fly a kite. I've loved this team through thick and thin, and most fans love their team the same way. The Canucks have had many players over the years that I haven't liked. Fitzpatrick, Demitra, Bulis, Messier, Krutov, the list goes on.....but I still loved the team. We have all watched players that we liked leave as well. Bure, Linden, McLean, Jovo, Clouts, Ohlund, Naslund, Cooke, Lidster, Larionov, Mogilny, this list goes on too. We still loved this team. With the deal being offered right now, hell, even the one the owners initially proposed back in September, with those deals the members of the NHLPA would still be the highest paid, richest, and most "coddled" hockey players on the planet.....by quite a margain. So if a few of them decided to go play elsewhere for less money, well let them. The majority would still be in the NHL. You know for damned sure they aren't going to want to go and get a regular job that pays them less than 5% of what they would make playing hockey. So you know they aren't going to walk away. And it is the owners who underwrite the teams. If the owners were so meaningless to the way this league operates then I'm pretty sure that would mean they were replaceable. If so, why did the league have to foot the bill for the Coyotes for so long and the only person who wanted to take the risk on his own was Jim Balsillie?

I will tell you right now that Donald Fehr is worse for the game of hockey than Bettman ever has been, or will be for that matter. I for one don't want to turn the NHL into a more exciting version of MLB where 6 teams are the heavy favorite every year and they just buy up all the talent. A cap free league would be exactly that. Bettman is first about the dollar signs, then about growing the game and keeping interest up league-wide.....because that keeps the dollar signs up. For the record I don't care for either of them, but Fehr has no interest in hockey whatsoever.

Oh and btw Canuck-One. This latest proposal from the league does not ask for a roll back on wages.

Blob wrote: LOL the way you carry on about this is comical. Most of us just want to watch hockey again while you have polarized yourself to the point where half the board probably has you on ignore. Why is it that you want to lick the salt off the players ballsacks ?

Gee Blob I thought you would appreciate that I'm consistent at least : ) seriously though I realize I've taken the extreme PA point of view on this and there are a few more on the owners side that are as vocal and consistent as well. Am I wrong in thinking that's just fine and kind of the point of this thread and board? What fun would it be if we all were a mutual admiration club?Hey you may not agree with me and that's fine, hell I've been wrong before too and that's fine, we all have from time to time. But I have my opinion and I'm entitled to it and if some have me on ignore because of it, fuck them its their loss.

If the league is shut down for one year , let alone two, 25- 50 % of these NHLPA members you idolize will never play in the league again. Is that what you want ? It's one thing to pick sides but your insatiable lust for everything NHLPA is nauseating. I don't get it. Are you a former player ???

Actually I'm a lot like Pot in that I'm not that attached to any particular player. Unlike Pot however, I'm a Vancouver fan and if the Canucks were to move as has been threatened in the past when the dollar was a peso, I'd drop the team as fast as we are all are gonna drop luongo when he gets traded.

There's been plenty of evidence the owners don't give a damn about little kids in Winnipeg, Quebec City, and Edmonton or anywhere else ... I just don't like the way the owners have taken the game away from the people and treat it like it like their own personal pissing ground. Yeah I know that they bought it but fuck if I got to like it .

Right or wrong there aren't a lot of people out there with 18,000 seat arenas that are fully staffed waiting to pay hockey players an AVERAGE of 2.5 million dollars a season. You do realize that NHL is a niche sport in North America don't you ? The revenue stream is a drop of piss in the bucket compared to MLB, NFL, NBA, Golf, Tennis etc. It's somewhere between tether ball and lawn bowling for the average American.

I guess I have more faith in the sport than that. pro hockey will still be there for those who love it and that's what it should be about.

The apocolypse you rant about will affect the players far more than the owners. Be careful what you wish for. Your hero could be playing for an average of 200 K if they shitcan another season or two. But then they will have won the war right ?????

Well the thing is I said if the true intention of the owners is to break the PA and not to find an equitable solution for all stakeholders then yeah I hope the players can hold out long enough for the owners to believe that the players would see it burn to the ground first to call their bluff because a league with no PA is what we had under Eagleson and as others have pointed out here that game was closer to a clown show than a sport.

But what if they draft a new CBA in time for training camps and exhibition games

what he is saying is: As a financial and emotional supporter of this sport for a very very long time. He has had enough with the interuptions and general conflicts, that could have been planned better and dealt with in a more fan friendly way. This may or may not include the state of the game as it morphs back to clutch and grab dead puck era2... Its just not fun anymore...He does not receive fair value in return.HE QUITS!!!! ...(disclaimer) at the previous level, there may be playoff interest..and He wont let rats down (not yard rats previously referred to)and will pop in no matter what..every once in a while at least

But what if they draft a new CBA in time for training camps and exhibition games

what he is saying is: As a financial and emotional supporter of this sport for a very very long time. He has had enough with the interuptions and general conflicts, that could have been planned better and dealt with in a more fan friendly way. This may or may not include the state of the game as it morphs back to clutch and grab dead puck era2... Its just not fun anymore...He does not receive fair value in return.HE QUITS!!!! ...(disclaimer) at the previous level, there may be playoff interest..and He wont let rats down and will pop in no matter what

this is my ever so humble interpretation...

I'm just poking fun at donny. "Tell us how you really feel," and all that.

But what if they draft a new CBA in time for training camps and exhibition games

what he is saying is: As a financial and emotional supporter of this sport for a very very long time. He has had enough with the interuptions and general conflicts, that could have been planned better and dealt with in a more fan friendly way. This may or may not include the state of the game as it morphs back to clutch and grab dead puck era2... Its just not fun anymore...He does not receive fair value in return.HE QUITS!!!! ...(disclaimer) at the previous level, there may be playoff interest..and He wont let rats down and will pop in no matter what

this is my ever so humble interpretation...

I'm just poking fun at donny. "Tell us how you really feel," and all that.

and I am just trying to make his God damned hockey talk message board experience as pleasant as possible..

I'm hoping the stubborn and fighting nature of hockey players holds out and gets them through the year to the point where the owners are looking at a second year out. That's when I think the stuffing will come out of the turkey. Surely only a fool is gonna believe that the league is going to survive an apocalypse.

LOL the way you carry on about this is comical. Most of us just want to watch hockey again while you have polarized yourself to the point where half the board probably has you on ignore. Why is it that you want to lick the salt off the players ballsacks ?

If the league is shut down for one year , let alone two, 25- 50 % of these NHLPA members you idolize will never play in the league again. Is that what you want ? It's one thing to pick sides but your insatiable lust for everything NHLPA is nauseating. I don't get it. Are you a former player ???

Right or wrong there aren't a lot of people out there with 18,000 seat arenas that are fully staffed waiting to pay hockey players an AVERAGE of 2.5 million dollars a season. You do realize that NHL is a niche sport in North America don't you ? The revenue stream is a drop of piss in the bucket compared to MLB, NFL, NBA, Golf, Tennis etc. It's somewhere between tether ball and lawn bowling for the average American.

The apocolypse you rant about will affect the players far more than the owners. Be careful what you wish for. Your hero could be playing for an average of 200 K if they shitcan another season or two. But then they will have won the war right ?????

ukcanuck wrote:Unlike Pot however, I'm a Vancouver fan and if the Canucks were to move as has been threatened in the past when the dollar was a peso, I'd drop the team as fast as we are all are gonna drop luongo when he gets traded.

I'm not sure what you are getting at here. I like the NHL in general but the Canucks are quite clearly my team and while I would follow them if they left it certianly wouldnt be the same.

There's been plenty of evidence the owners don't give a damn about little kids in Winnipeg, Quebec City, and Edmonton or anywhere else ... I just don't like the way the owners have taken the game away from the people and treat it like it like their own personal pissing ground. Yeah I know that they bought it but fuck if I got to like it .

You think the players are any different?

Right or wrong there aren't a lot of people out there with 18,000 seat arenas that are fully staffed waiting to pay hockey players an AVERAGE of 2.5 million dollars a season. You do realize that NHL is a niche sport in North America don't you ? The revenue stream is a drop of piss in the bucket compared to MLB, NFL, NBA, Golf, Tennis etc. It's somewhere between tether ball and lawn bowling for the average American.

I guess I have more faith in the sport than that. pro hockey will still be there for those who love it and that's what it should be about.

Have to agree with UK on that one. The NHL is a 3.3 billion dollar industry. To put that in context the NBA is only 4.3 bill and MLB is 7.7. That means the NHL is roughly 2/3rds the size of the NBA and half the size of MLB.

Say what you want about basketball but if you are half the size of MLB you are a serious, serious entity.

Well the thing is I said if the true intention of the owners is to break the PA and not to find an equitable solution for all

The Intention of the Owners is to get themselves the best deal possible in order to maximize the long term return on their investment.